PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TTICO. 885
4PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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prisoners have to be worked outside at their ordinary occupation of coir-beating and stone-breaking.
41. The only other prison from which convicts are sent to work outside is the Saint Catherine District Prison at Spanish Town; they also are worked on the main roads and in the streets of the town.. Females are never worked outside, nor are prisoners committed with or without hard labour, or in default of payment of a fine. Before quitting this part of the subject, we beg to express our very strong conviction that, except in the case of the General Penitentiary, where the prisoners working at the quarry or the palisades can be kept under control and isolated, the system of working outside the prison-walls ought to be at once abolished. The sub-officers in charge removed from the immediate observation of the Superintendent are apt either to abuse their power or to neglect their duty. No one who has seen these gangs on the road can doubt that labour as a rule is not really enforced; the convicts, very imperfectly guarded, have opportunities of communicating with their friends, and of receiving pre- sents from them; and even supposing the vigilance of the sub-officers in charge to be far greater than it is, it would be almost impossible for them to prevent the escape of prisoners, who are frequently working along a road densely lined on each side with thick bush. The average negro cares so little for the mere degradation of imprison. ment, that the exposure to the public gaze does not counterbalance these disadvantages; in fact, we think that the sight of a gang of men, supposed to be undergoing punish- ment, idling away their time in the roads, tends very much to diminish the dread of imprisonment, which it is so desirable to impress upon the population.
42. The productive labour carried on within the walls of the district and short term prisons is necessarily limited partly from the want of efficient instructors and partly from the short time for which most of the prisoners are confined in these Institutions. Stone breaking is carried on in all the prisons, but the stones so broken are for the most part used on the roads which the prisons have contracted to repair. Coir beaking has also been introduced into most of the prisons, both district and short term. We cannot, however, help observing that as a general rule sufficient care is not taken to ascertain the actual amount of work done by each prisoner (cspecially in stone- breaking), or to render the task imposed proportionate to the individual prisoner's strength.
13. A Return of the amount earned outside by each prison will be found in the Appendix marked 7.
1. Prisoners confined in cells for breaches of prison discipline are allowed half an hour's exercise in the morning and the same in the evening, unless the surgeon gives orders that the time should be extended. No particular routine scems to be enforced, the prisoners are merely turned out into the yard, and allowed to walk or lounge about as they please. Prisoners committed for trial, or on judgment summons without hard labour, are allowed the unrestricted use of the yard during the whole day.
Dietary.
45. The scale of dietary for the Penitentiary and other prisons was framed by the Governor in Privy Council. With one exception the medical men examined by us agree in stating that the scale is sufficient, and certainly, the appearance of the prisoners fully justifies their opinion in the case of native prisoners. With reference to the white military and naval prisoners confined in the Penitentiary, we feel some difficulty in giving an opinion, for while it appears that the military prisoners improve in condition during their term of imprisonment, and complaints have been in fact made by the military authorities that their treatment is not severe enough, the naval authorities complain that their prisoners suffer so much from insufficient diet that they generally return unfit for duty, in a debilitated condition and suffering from bowel complaints.
46. As a Special Commission of medical men selected from both services and
• island medical practitioners has been since our sitting inquiring into this question, it is to be hoped that any deficiency which may exist in the diet scale will be remedied.
47. The scales of diet in use in the Penitentiary and in the district prisons are We annexed, from which it will be seen that in consequence of the longer terms for which prisoners are committed to the General Penitentiary, the dietary is more liberal. beg, however, to call attention to the fact that a prisoner committed for twelve months may be sent to the district prison, or to the Penitentiary, and that in the one case he
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We do not see any reason for this
receives a higher scale of dietary than in the other. distinction.
48. Beds, in the English sense of the word, are not in use in any of the prisons in the island In the associated wards of all the prisons there are guard-beds, i.e., inclined planes of wood, on which the prisoners sleep without any other bedding than a rug. In the cells they sleep on the floor, every prisoner being supplied with a rug. This seems rather hard to English notions, but the fact is that very few of the class of people from which the prisoners are drawn here have, or wish to have, any better accommodation at home.
49. The hours allowed for sleep during the long days extending from the 1st of April to the 30th of September, are ten hours and thirty minutes, and during the short days, eleven hours and thirty minutes. The number of hours allowed for sleep appears long when compared with the English scale, but it must be remembered that the English regulations cannot be enforced in this latitude, in consequence of the difference of the length of daylight. We, however, think that in the General Penitentiary and some of the larger prisons, a night school might be advantageously established without any great addition to the staff of officers. Whilst on the subject of time, we beg to recommend that clocks be provided in all the prisons, as the length of time allowed for breakfast, &c., is now very irregular.
50. The old Insolvency Laws are now abolished, and the "English Bankruptcy Laws," 32 and 33 Vict., secs. 62-71 and 83, have been in substance adopted in this Colony. No prisoner therefore can be imprisoned for debt, except in the case of fraud, or in the event of its being proved to the satisfaction of the judge that he is about to leave the island. The old Insolvency Laws of the island have been repealed by the Island Law 25 of 1871, which is, in effect, a mere transcript of the English Bankruptcy Law, 22 and 23 Vict., c. 71, so that a debtor cannot now be sent to prison except on a conviction for fraud or for contempt of court
51. Imbecile or maniacal prisoners are not detained in the prisons, but are at once Bent to the Kingston Lunatic Asylum.
52. Criminal children may be sent to the Reformatory at Stony Hill, and detained there up to the age of sixteen. As our observations on the Reformatory will appear at a later part of this Report, we do not think it necessary here to enter fully on the subject of the treatment of criminal children. We may observe, however, that, in our opinion, sufficient advantage has not been taken of this excellent Institution in some of the more distant parishes, and that children under the age of 15 years, who might. have benefited by the useful training which would have been afforded them at the Reformatory, are not unfrequently committed for trifling offcaces to the district or Short-Term Prison, where they are subject to all the contaminating influences which arise from association with old criminals.
53. No especial provision is made by law for the care of children born in prison. These children, as well as very young children who are brought in by their mothers, are supported at the expense of the prison, and seem to be very well cared for, the surgeon ordering such food for them as he thinks necessary.
Separation.
51. The separation of male and female prisoners is complete in all the prisons of the island, except during divine service. At the General Penitentiary there is a parti- tion which entirely divides the male from the female prisoners, and there is also a separate entrance for the latter.
55. In all cases prisoners are attended by wardors of their own sex,
Official Visitors.
56. By the 5th section of the 28 Vict., cap. 22, the appointment and removal of all prison officers is vested in the Governor of the Island, who also has the power of appointing any justice of the peace as official visitor to the General Penitentiary. By the 18th sec. of the "Prison Consolidated Act 1856,” supplemented by the 3rd sec. of the 21 Vict. cap. 22, and the 4th sec. of the 28 Vict., cap. 22, the justices of the peace for the different parishes in which prisons are situated are empowered to nominate in special sessions two or more justices of the peace to be visitors of the prison. This last law seems to have become a dead letter, as no such appointments have been made for years past with the exception of the official visitors at the General Penitentiary.